What competition does to people

During his studies, Michael Kirchler discovered similarities between competitive settings in sports and economic life. The sports enthusiast from Tyrol has since been exploring what impact competition has on people in a business context. In order to be able to devote his time fully to research, Kirchler withdrew from a rather successful career as a semi-professional cross-country skier. Studying real-life phenomena like the Bitcoin hype in the lab helps the behavioral economist deepen his understanding of how people make decisions, why speculative bubbles develop and why competitive pressure can engender immoral behaviour.